


blue.

by solargav



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Carolina is only mentioned as well as most characters not on blue team, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Selectively Mute Michael J. Caboose, Sheila is also mentioned, its fine, lil bit crack fic i think, no hurt just comfort, not beta read this was really just me projecting onto an old comfort, probably ooc it has been like the beginning of my sophomore year, someone they know is color blind but i refuse to say who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:21:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29564616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solargav/pseuds/solargav
Summary: Of course he did this wrong like everything else people nagged him for, because he was Caboose. He was a rookie, and made too many mistakes to be more accountable.Except there's no wrong way to be you, and blue can be a happy color.
Relationships: Michael J. Caboose & Agent Washington, Michael J. Caboose & Everyone, Michael J. Caboose & Franklin Delano Donut, Michael J. Caboose & Lavernius Tucker, Michael J. Caboose & Leonard L. Church
Kudos: 9





	blue.

Caboose was used to using small cards, covered in a solid color and even had a small written explanation on the back to explain the color to people who he only recently knew. It provided a way for him to show how he felt without having to take off the armored section protecting his gloves to sign, yet like everything else he had done it wrong. 

There wasn’t really a way to do such a thing wrong, no committee to ban you from using them as long as they helped on the job at base. Yet, when they had first met Church had told him they were all wrong. 

Why would blue be the most happy? It is sad, used when people need to take notes for something like math. It holds sorrow, it's boring, it isn’t a happy color. So why, in what world would Caboose use that to show he was happy at meeting him and Tucker? 

For a simple explanation with, against uniform policy, slimmed gloves, Caboose said it was his favorite color. To him blue was indeed the happiest color, it was wonderful and it surrounded him constantly, it was his new life. There was nothing better than being drowned in blue compared to the dust and dead grass patches of the canyons. All of his favorite people were blue, except for Sheila, and Simmons, and Donut, and Grif, and, well everyone else. 

But his top two, that he relied on and spent time with, Tucker and Church. They were different blues, they had different armor accents and different personalities. It made sense why they were those hues, the codes that would print those colors would so perfectly ink out the personality of them both by name. They were Caboose’s favorites. 

Blue was Caboose’s favorite. He had explained it in this rush of hand movements that Church could barely catch, unexpecting of using his old knowledge of sign language that he never remember truly learning, but assumed it was his foreign language in highschool. And suddenly, after making Caboose repeat slower on a few pieces of what could technically be called his “run on ramble of an explanation,” it made sense. It clicked, and he felt guilt almost immediately. A rush of understanding, the tense of his peaked aggravated shoulders had relaxed no longer making him hunch in question. A sort of calm came in Church’s understanding, it was warm and it felt like home. It felt like blue, Caboose always liked to say that Church was his favorite blue. Though Tucker was a close second, and then Sheila by association with the blue base. They were Caboose’s favorites, something that would continually be proven.

When it had happened, Tucker often seemed lost, but in this moment, the confused stare could be felt from behind his visor from miles. Grif, on the other side of the canyon had shivered in a wave of feeling something close to second hand embarrassment. He had no idea when they had shipped him out, there was no training for sign language so in this case it had lessened their ability to do work on the base if Church was not there as a kind of mediator. So, when cleaning their meeting room and finding a small hand held whiteboard and some chunky markers meant for the larger board in the said room, Caboose and Tucker were ecstatic. Church was pleasantly pleased by the concept of having time to relax and rest his voice though carrying it for the other member of their base had been less of a bother than one would anticipate for how they all would clash with their personalities.

Caboose would carry a few of the markers somewhere on his armor at all times, trying to tuck them into a small pocket of his suit that usually would leave indents into his skin until they had met Doc who begged to give a small bag that would provide less bruising that Caboose probably had. The bag was also big enough to carry the whiteboard and cards, and a few small things like cool rocks or shells he found out on patrol, sometimes even writing or doing a small drawing of something so he could give it to the other blues.   
He only had a few markers, Donut was nice when they would talk and always try and see if he had different colors in their meeting room. That’s how he got his red marker, a color he also had come to like very much while it had meant something mundane in his set of cards.  
Caboose always talked in red with the reds across the canyon, he saved the blue marker’s ink for his top best friends (this is never to be talked about when they were all together, Caboose always says he’s against having favorite friends). 

Red was another color he had, this one was more easily mixed up with a certain friend’s issue with his color blindness, to solve such an issue Church got their mutual friend to pick out of Caboose’s red crayons which was the most different shade compared to green and a few others. Church then, genuinely, put in the time to figure out the code version of the color to print out those specific shades for new versions of those mentioned colors. The two also rewrote the explanations on the back of his cards to include the color name. To include himself, Tucker found a shade very close to the tint of his armor, and gave himself as a card to Caboose. Saying, “It's like my ultra rare baseball card, you’re a real collector now. I’m limited edition.” 

It was “Tucker Aqua” with an explanation that was limited to a simple sentence that only stated, “For when I, Caboose, am feeling the coolest.” And it quickly became treasured, one of Caboose’s three new favorite kinds of blue. He used it as an extra, when he would show new rocks to Doc on his visits or to later Wash, he would pull out his super happy blue and the tucker aqua. Saying he was really happy that he had found a new rock for his collection and that it was a really cool one that would make people jealous, he did this every time he showed off new rocks when he didn’t have one that was similar already. 

When Caboose first spoke in the presence of “his blues,” Church, Tucker, and Wash, it wasn’t over something massive in importance either. Again, what would have been considered a mess up in Church’s eyes before he had gotten to know Caboose past his rookie phase. It was over something simple, almost idiotic as all of their conversations. Something like how Tucker had stolen some of the cookies Donut had hidden from Grif, and that he wasn’t even going to share he just wanted to flex. To which Caboose had only truly heard the first part before excitedly rushing into the heap, asking if he could at least have one and wouldn’t ask for anything else for the rest of the week. 

It was a shock, and Wash was surprised he could still remember it as Caboose speaking would soon be a norm when it was just that small group, Caboose being uncomfortable to talk to Carolina for a long time. At the time of the cookie conversation, that made it so memorable, was the screaming and how Wash could clearly hear the two blues sniffling behind their visors while Caboose hadn’t realized why they sounded so nasally, asking if they needed to ask for Doc. Wash being the one to tell him, that they were just so honored to hear his voice, watching the body language as it clicked for Caboose of what he did. There was the sudden stiff, and a slight shake in his whole body as he struggled to then pull out his cards. Pulling out his blue, unable to express how happy he was with himself and that they were happy too. 

It was one of the first times Tucker had ever accepted and initiated a hug. 

The first time Tucker ever felt jealous about someone regarding Caboose, was the instant speaking rights he had given to Locus. However, only Locus. Not when he was with Felix, or anyone else other than those he was previously comfortable speaking with. And Tucker knew Caboose had no true choice or control of how or who he talked to, so it was okay. He was just a little petty.   
It was also okay because he knew Caboose still regularly used Tucker’s aqua blue card. To the point he had asked Tucker to find the color again so he could remake his set, the cards having been worn and bent at corners, layers of paper slowly peeling apart. Caboose still used tucker aqua when giving small gifts of treasures he found, now including small screws or bolts found near automobiles or old hubcaps that had been forgotten and unattached from their original owner with no way back. 

It was okay because Caboose’s favorite color was still blue, and not the new green.


End file.
